Tyrants have existed throughout human history - they have routinely ordered the killing of people for political, religious, racialist, expansionist and imperialist reasons, and some have even done so on an arbitrary basis with no logic or reasoning. Some names spring instantly to mind - Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, for example, who both appear on the list - but there are other sinister and evil leaders from human history. These man have overseen genocides - the systematic destruction of racial, ethnic, religious or national groups - and democides - the murder of people by their government - in order to establish their own power, create a "racially pure" society, or simply because the means were there for the leaders to do it. And, in the following list of eight leaders, these men have overseen the death of close to 160 million people between them - which is more than the population of Bangladesh, the eighth most-densely populated nation in the world. Or put this way, that is equivalent to one fortieth of the current population of the entire world. Let that sink in as you work your way through the list and read about the sheer atrocities orchestrated by the following eight men...
NUFC editor for WhatCulture.com/NUFC. History graduate (University of Edinburgh) and NCTJ-trained journalist. I love sports, hopelessly following Newcastle United and Newcastle Falcons. My pastimes include watching and attending sports matches religiously, reading spy books and sampling ales.
